Special needs children share in summer camp experience

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Every summer in Philadelphia, thousands of children with behavioral health disorders, miss out on summer camp, but the city is working to change that.

In 2014 alone Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability has placed nearly 1,400 children with behavioral disorders into more than 100 camps in the city.

At camps like the one at the Lonnie Young Recreation Center in Germantown, campers enjoy activities like swimming and basketball.

The goal is to make sure that children, with behavioral health challenges, have the same opportunities to engage in summer camp experiences as their peers.

"We're talking about children who have issues such as aggression. We have some children on the autism spectrum a lot of which have experiences trauma in their lives" said Terence Young.

They are even offered the chance to participate in a performing arts program.

About half of the children who participate have behavioral issues and the idea is to place them in a setting where they can interact with mainstream campers.

"You're watching them practice a performance they'll be doing on August 15th - our last day of camp. It's based on a Whoopi Goldber book, a series called 'Sugarplum Ballerinas,'" said Ebony Hatcher, Lonnie Young Recreation Center.

The title of their performance is 'Perfectly Prima.'

"This particular book speaks to kids' self-esteem, particularly to young girls," said Hatcher.

The program also provides relief for parents and grandparents, who have difficulty finding good summer camps for their children, because of their diagnosis.

"This camp has offered him social skills to interact with other children. This is his second year and he looked forward to this year because he opened up so much last year," said Shirleen Jacocks.

The city takes 2,500 applications for placements each summer and officials are hoping they can accept more of them next year.